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2.16.2014

Little Black Dress 2: "the 30's and Madame Gres" - featuring Caterina

"For a dress to survive from one era to the next, it must be marked with an extreme purity." ~ Madame Grès

A couple of months ago, researcing some Greta Garbo fashions from the 30's I "discovered" Madame Gres, she was an astounding cotourier (her design house was known from the 30's through the early 40's as Alix afterwards as Grés) who had a very distinctive design and a incredible skill for pleats. Her best known fashions have an incredible quality and her dresses looked as they were sculpted!

This was actually an evening dress, dated 1934, but I loved it so much I revised it into a little black dress fashion, those sleeves are wonderful, and it seemed perfect for Caterina. You can see that Madame Gres knew exactly was she was talking about when she was speaking of purity of lines: